1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to using a distributed network to clinically manage chronic illnesses.
2. Description of Related Art
Managing chronic illnesses is both costly and difficult. Both patients and healthcare practitioners wish to decrease costs and inconvenience by reducing unnecessary clinic visits. However, the management quality of a chronic illness increases with the frequency that the clinical data obtained from the patient is updated. Automated and manual medical devices may be operated by a patient to provide the updated clinical data. However, the patient can operate the device improperly or has little opportunity to supply the clinical data to the healthcare practitioner.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,688 to Douglas et al. describes a therapeutic behavior modification program, compliance monitoring and feedback system. This system provides a series of milestones for patients to achieve to maintain good health. Patients may access the system over the Internet to review compliance data and to receive motivation. This system is designed around a community support motif that allows the patient to access various graphic representations of a community to access different parts of the system.